Search for disability tag scofflaws proves harder than city thought

Published 5:30 am, Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Parking Enforcement Supervisor Roland De La Cerda explains to a woman the importance of hanging her handicap tag from her mirror, which she forgot to do Wednesday.

Parking Enforcement Supervisor Roland De La Cerda explains to a woman the importance of hanging her handicap tag from her mirror, which she forgot to do Wednesday.

Photo: Cody Duty, Chronicle

Search for disability tag scofflaws proves harder than city thought

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The hunt for Houston's next public service announcement star turned out to be harder than it might seem Wednesday.

The city's Parking Management Department had arranged for a photographer from HTV, Houston's municipal channel, to go out with parking enforcement officers on Wednesday, when the fine imposed for illegally parking in disabled-access zones jumped from $205 to $500.

The new amount is the minimum fine mandated by state law for this offense, according to a city news release.

With the goal of creating a public service announcement urging drivers to "think pretty hard about taking up a handicapped spot illegally," the city also invited the media to be on hand when workers started writing the $500 tickets.

As it turned out, the search team couldn't find an illegally parked car until about 2 p.m. in the 1900 block of Louisiana, by the Mickey Leland Federal Building. It was quickly ticketed.

Celebrity, however, would have to wait. When the driver returned, she got into her Toyota Solara and drove off without a word.

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A late-afternoon cruise through the parking lot of a shopping mall at Crosstimbers and the North Freeway turned up only one car in the handicapped zone without a license plate or placard inside to show that the driver was eligible to park there.

Roland de la Cerda, the city's parking enforcement supervisor, wrote a ticket and put it on the Buick Century's windshield.

He barely had finished when the driver and her passenger came out of the mall, protesting that the ticket was in error.

"I have it," the driver said of the placard. "I just forgot to put it out."

De la Cerda gave her a break.

"I'm going to go ahead and take this one back," he said, retrieving the $500 ticket. "But next time, don't forget."

The driver, a 70-year-old Huffman woman who did not want to give her name, said she had parked in the space because of her passenger's back condition and added that she usually is conscientious about using the placard.

"I used to turn people in for this when I worked at the hospital," she said.

De la Cerda, who has worked in parking enforcement 17 years, said he was surprised at how few tickets he had written Wednesday.

"We have a lot of violators," he said, noting that he once wrote 15 tickets in one day. "Come out and start enforcing and you'll see it every day."

Derrick Williams, Houston's parking enforcement manager, said that by 5 p.m. Wednesday, crews had written four tickets for cars illegally parked in disabled-access zones.